The Lao government has decided to stop exporting coal to keep the fuelsource serving the national industries, especially cement production,according to the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The country now has six cement plants, which are together importing a large volume of high-price coal, the ministry reported.
Theprice of locally-produced cement is currently higher than that inThailand, posing a big challenge for the industry when an ASEAN EconomicCommunity is established in 2015, according to local cement producers.
Therefore, it needs to go down with an adequate supply of coal mined inside the country, they said.